13/04/2014 Minamisanriku – Ofunato Daylight bought little change to my eyes. A vast nothingness of baron land would greet me in what was once a place known as Minamisanriku, a town that would be 95% wiped out during the tsunami. My thoughts dismally collecting with each and every place I encountered along this devastated coast…
Tag: cycling
Touring the Sanriku Coast – I
11/04/ 2014 SENDAI TO ISHINOMAKI The notion to be pragmatically angry at a botched night’s sleep, especially a paid for botched night’s sleep would I genuinely feel have been warranted. But as soon as I was packed and on the road muscling my way through the inner city traffic and out towards the coast I…
Down in the Land of the One-Eyed Dragon
In the 17th Century there lived a Daimyo with balls of steel, a guy so hard that when he came face to face with the smallpox as a juvenile he plucked his own eyeball out giving him the nickname of the “one-eyed dragon”. That Daimyo’s name was Date Masamune, and as he grew he became…
The Fallout of Fukushima
History dictates that Japan is no stranger to Mother Nature’s wrath, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, torrential rain, landslides and typhoons have all blighted Japan’s islands for millennia. Situated precariously along the so called Pacific Rim of Fire a number of the earth’s tectonic plates converge enabling islands, mountain chains and volcanoes to formulate. It is here…
A Tale of Snow & Piss
I awoke early from my slumber knowing that today a formidable task lay ahead of me. One that had been lingering in the back of my mind intrepidly for some time. For today I would attempt to tackle the Bandai-Azuma Skyline, my greatest feat thus far. The road traverse’s for some 30km through the Azuma…
A Spring Winter’s Day
Approaching Nasu should have been a straight forward affair. I made sure it wasn’t though and spiced things up by taking a country road that would essentially lead on for an eternity and further on into oblivion. Things always get a little nervy when you haven’t seen a road sign for a town for at…
Gyōza Town
Utsunomiya, vibrant, sensual and quite simply just rammed full of gyōza! Embedded between a number of swanky café’s and bars dotted around town you’ll find a number of gyōza joints offering up various adaptation’s of the Chinese dumpling. Legend has it that a number of Japanese soldiers during WWII obtained Chinese dumpling recipes whilst occupying…
The Naritan Waiting Game – Part II
The rain came earlier than expected, and it really wanted me. I’d read it was due to kick off at around 8am, it was now 2am and I found myself getting wet. I’d not used my tent tonight as it wasn’t an option, I was encamped upon my sleeping map on the concrete base of…
The Chichibu Test – I
March 21st 2014 Saitama prefecture sits northwest of Tokyo, so in an effort to reach Chichibu in the mountain range again to the far northwest of the prefectural border I went at it in what will soon become my natural anti-clockwise fashion. It made sense to approach Saitama first like this as when my journey…
In the Beginning…
I With an assortment of flights under my belt now I felt it safe to say that there are a broad range of experiences to be had, naturally ranging from the good to the bad. Now considering the shape of recent events over the South China…
Tokyo to Tokyo 